Christmas 2007

Here are the pictures from our trip to Austin and Christmas at home.

Some Things Never Change

Today we went to Babies R Us is Springfield to look at baby furniture after doing massive research on the Net. Wouldn't you know, we end up purchasing the same crib and combo unit (dresser and changing table) we looked at over a year ago when there was a strong possibility of getting a child from DCFS. We were set on one style, but couldn't decide what finish to get it in...honey, walnut, natural, black. The honey and walnut looked "homey" with our Alphabet Soup crib set, but the stains were off between the crib and combo unit and there was not a guarantee we could get the stain we wanted. So we ended up getting the black! It does look VERY cute with our crib set and we have decided to paint the walls the same color as our bedroom..."Granny Smith apple green" as I call it or "Margarita" as Troy says! We will post pictures once we are done! The furniture has to be ordered and we should get it in 2 weeks.

Merry Christmas!

Yee Haaaah!

... school is out and I have 2 weeks off! Not quite off, I still have to do hospital visits to new moms on the 27th and work the prenatal clinic in January, but I don't have to return to school until January 8th! This is a much needed break! To top things off, our nursery bedding arrived today! I ordered it earlier this week and it had a projected delivery of Dec.28th! This is an added bonus! Troy and I will be cleaning and prepping the nursery walls for a fresh coat of green paint! Plus, our oven is now working! It went out and needed a new ignitor switch in which the guys at Dick Van Dyke replaced (We love supporting local business)! Come to find out, we have a high end range from 1995 that is a gem according to the Van Dyke guys! Who would have known!

Home Again

We made it home late Sunday night after a long weekend in Austin visiting family and friends for an early Christmas! The weather was perfect in the 60's and we came home to 9 inches of snow! Jack is LOVING this snowfall! We had to bribe him inside with carrots so we could leave for another Christmas party! Pictures to follow later! Another storm must be on the way because I have a MAJOR headache this morning!

As Christmas Approaches...Pt.2

Follow up from a previous post. This is another article I found in our adoption files given to me from a conference, friend, doctor, social worker...I don't remember.

Infertility Etiquette
By Vita Alligood

1. Don’t tell them to relax.
2. Don’t minimize the problem.
3. Don’t say there are worse things that could happen.
4. Don’t say they aren’t meant to be parents.
5. Don’t ask why they aren’t trying IVF.
6. Don’t play doctor.
7. Don’t be crude.
8. Don’t complain about your pregnancy.
9. Don’t treat them like they are ignorant.
10. Don’t gossip about your friend’s condition.
11. Don’t push adoption. (Just yet- my notes)
12. Let them know that you care.
13. Remember them on Mother’s Day.
14. Support their decision to stop treatments.

1st LID Birthday!

Today marks our 1 year anniversary of being "in line" for a little miracle from China! The time has gone quick, but not quick enough.

Troy and I have decided to try for a domestic adoption in addition to still waiting for a little one in China. With the wait for China getting longer, we are ready to be parents so we thought we might as well try.

With my line of work with teen moms and spending time in a prenatal clinic, we have been asked to adopt about 3 times, but the moms decided to parent. We have been asked again by one of the 3 moms and she met with our social worker yesterday. It does not look good for this mom to make an adoption plan for her baby, so we will be creating a portfolio for our home study agency. Miracles can still happen and this mom may decide for us to parent her chid. God knows how he is going to build our family and we continue to wait, but we are ready to get off the roller coaster ride.

It was 7 years ago yesterday that Troy proposed to me. In Biblical terms, Troy said the number 7 means completion. We found it ironic that a birth mom was meeting with our SW on this day. It continues to be our prayer we will be a family soon!

As Christmas Approaches...Pt. 1

... families, friends, and parties come together...this can be a painful time for infertile couples and those waiting for their child through adoption. I have compiled a couple of articles that I want to share with you that can be helpful in approaching families in these circumstances during the holiday time AND the rest of the year.

Helping Friends and Family Understand: ‘Tis A Gift To Be Wise
An invaluable holiday present is Patricia Irwin Johnston’s booklet, Understanding Infertility: Insights for Family and Friends. Share these suggestions:

1. Understand that an infertile person does not resolve intense feelings overnight.
2. Listen to what the couple has to share—their pain, frustration, and anger—and try to imagine what they are experiencing. Avoid advice.
3. Let the couple know that they are not alone—share your support.
4. Respect the couple’s need for privacy, but let them know you’re there when they might need you.
5. Be honest in telling of your own pregnancy. As painful as the news may be, it is usually better than keeping it a secret.
6. Be aware that emotions differ from person to person and from day to day. Understand that some people may need to isolate themselves occasionally.
7. Humor has its place in dealing with the struggle of infertility, but do not be the one to joke about it—leave that to the one experiencing it.
8. Do not imply that the couple’s inability to conceive must stem from inner doubts about having children or must mean that God has not found them suitable for parenthood.
9. Support the couple’s decisions regarding medical treatment or resolution as best you can, even if you do not agree.
10. Learn about infertility so that you can be an informed listener.

Taking the Slow Boat to China

September 2006 is out of the Review Room! Troy and I continue to look into our options as it looks like we won't be matched for another 2 years! Our home study update is scheduled for Jan. 3, 2008 since our 171-H will expire in April, so we are going to talk with our social worker about domestic adoption! All we have to do is create a portfolio for birth parents to look at since we already have a HS and filled out all the other required paperwork for our HS agency!

A Year Ago Today...

... was the Ice Storm of 2006! Our family was fortunate to have lost power for less then 2 hours, but many were without power for a week! Only damage we suffered was a 6x6 area of wet carpet in our basement when we lost power to the sump pump and had continues rain!

In fact, we are experiencing a repeat, but on a MUCH smaller scale today! It has rained all morning and our deck in a sheet of ice!

Daddy and his caddy...

YUMMO!

Gingerbread cake that I made for house church this morning. It was so pretty and delicious I had to take a picture!

Bella- The Review

Imagine my surprise while reading the morning paper with my cup of coffee on Friday morning when I saw Bella was being shown in Decatur! I thought for sure we would see it in Austin when we visit in a couple of weeks...but we had a date night Saturday night instead!

The movie has beautiful cinematography and some delightful symbolism. This relatively simple, yet profound story will stay with you for a very long time. It's about life: family, friendship, sacrifice and what is truly important in life... love.

Jose', played by Eduardo Verastequi (the next Antonio Banderas?) is a chef in a Latino restaurant, so of course we had to end our night with my favorite, enchilada verdes with lots of cilantro and a margarita! The end to a perfect evening!

Thanksgiving in Review

Abby and I prepared our Turkey the night before with a secret spice rub.
Abby and Troy were the turkey carvers.
L-R: Ray, Sandy, Kristin, Jim, Troy, Abby
The "Losers". We played many rounds of Mad Gab, Catchphrase and Mexican Train Dominoes.
The "Winners". We were too much for the guys to handle!

Waiting on the Lord

Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him and He will do this.

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him...

Psalm 37:4,5,7a

Free Rice!

Do you want to build your vocabulary and help end world hunger! Go to this website and for every answer you get right, 10 grains of rice is donated to the United Nations World Food Program! This program is addicting and beneficial!

Yada Yada Addict!

Over the past year, I have become a Yada Yada Prayer Group addict! I finished book #6 over the weekend and now HAVE to get #7! I love how a group of women from various backgrounds and cultures can get together and BE REAL and SHARE LIFE!

Pics From Iowa

We're Back...

...from Clearlake, Iowa! We had a long weekend celebrating Troy's cousins wedding and catching up with family! Pictures to come soon! Troy did an incredible job of officiating the ceremony and had an inspiring message...of course I am biased, but he got a lot of compliments! I overheard one conversation that went like this: "Is this the new pastor at this church? If so, I will start going to church!" Well sorry guys, we are not in IA but you can come to our house for church in IL!

We stopped in Iowa City on the way home to get lunch and walk around the mall! We have passed this mall for years, but never got to check it out since we always had Jackson with us (he stayed home with his favorite dog/house sitter)! We are not mall crazy, but just about everything is a treat to us considering what we have at home! Troy felt at home wearing his University of Iowa hat and wasn't razzed for once!

BELLA THE MOVIE: OFFICIAL TRAILER (HI-RES)

I received an email from a respected adoption agency today promoting the movie Bella. This is what they say:

The award-winning film BELLA has been a box office success in 30 major cities since its limited release on October 26. Because of its success, BELLA will be shown in 19 more major cities on November 9 and in at least 30 more cities on November 16. Winner of the Toronto Film Festival, this movie shows how love goes beyond romance with the lead actor sharing compassion for a woman dealing with an unplanned pregnancy.The message of adoption is portrayed in a positive and authentic manner, and the ending of the movie is one you will never forget. This film has the opportunity to make a major impact on our culture’s view of abortion and adoption.

This movie truly excites me and I pray it will have a major impact on our culture's view of abortion and adoption. I work with pregnant and parenting teen moms including at-risk families who are expecting. It breaks my heart to see the choices some families continue make and I can only think how thier lives would be positively different had they made an adoption plan!

11

Today marks the 11th month we have been waiting for our child(ren) from China. Please keep us in your prayers at this time. We are depressed and wonder when and how God is going to build our family. According to statistics, if the CCAA matches 15 days of log-in days each month as they are saying they are going to do, it will be another 2 years before we get a refferal. It is our prayer that each 1 represented in the number 11 equals a child.

Veterans Day vs. Santa

While visiting the mall and walking out of Bergner's, I heard this band playing "God Bless America". This band's uniform and colors reminded me of my band days at Bowie High School when I was a freshman, so I hung around and listened to them finish their song. They had such a grandiose finish that I shed a tear. What did I shed a tear too? This was their song to honor the veterans who have fought for our freedoms, but to also welcome the kickoff of Santa at the mall! Can you say twisted!

The Shark!

Call me a suckerfor infomercials, but I DISLIKE ( I am being very kind) cleaning our kitchen floor, until I saw the Shark Steam Mop on T. V. and here. Our linoleum floors are white and have dimples in it that harbor dirt. The polish has worn off in well worn spots and leaves these grungy brown spots. It takes LOTS of elbow grease to get the floors in tip top company condition and we have people over weekly for house church and other stuff. After doing some research, of course, I ordered my Shark to see how miraculous it really is. The lavender machine arrived yesterday and it has been put to WORK. I don't want to say it is everything I was expecting it to be, but it does its job. I am still not sure if I am going to keep it, but I will continue to test it for the next 60 days until it must be returned if I decide not to keep it. I think that our floor dimples have not be exfoliated in the proper manner in a long time that it will take a couple of cleanings until it is perfection.

Update: The steam mop works! The floors look whiter and refreshed! It doesn't move as easy as the video demonstrates, but it beats the mop and chemicals! We have been using GREEN cleaning products for many years using Melaleuca Eco Sense products from our seminary days. They go a long way!

Oh Poop!

During the Fall months, Jack has a strange habit of bringing in a leaf or stick each time he comes inside. He will wait at the backdoor to open, you open it, and then he runs and grabs some piece of nature! He prances around strutting his stuff until you take away the mystery object! What did he grab tonight? A piece of POOP! Poor Abby had no idea she would take a piece of poop out of his mouth! Of course he then turned on his charm and got all cute and rolled over for a belly rub!

Introducing...Manbug Jack!

Jack was a manbug for Halloween this year, the male version of a ladybug. He was so incredibly CUTE in his costume and LOVED greeting all the kids at the door! This was a HUGE relief for us since he has not been keen of kids in the past, a concern we have had. Boys are slower to mature and this is also being shown in dogs! All the trick-or-treaters wanted to pet Jack and we even had one girl ask, "Was your dog a lobster last year?" We couldn't believe it...she remembered Jackson! Yes, Jack was a lobster last year...red is his favorite color!

Refferals are In!

Many families got to see pictures of their little one for the first time today! Boy are they CUTE! The CCAA matched through December 8, 2005, so we are a few days short of being a year away from LID's with a 12-11-06 Log-In-Date. It would be nice if we are only a year away from a referral! We keep reminding ourselves that anything can happen! My teen moms that I work with at the area HS's ask me week after week if we have heard anything. I keep saying it will be another year or so, but it does not sink in their minds! Many of them have been on this journey with Troy and I since the beginning and are just as eager for us to be parents!

Good-bye Dell! Hello Toshiba!!!!!!!!!

We did it! We couldn't wait any longer, so Merry Christmas Roenfanz family! The Christmas tree will look bare this year, but it is hard to survive (for us anywase) without a home computer! Troy does have a laptop for business at home, but we don't want to use it for personal reasons! So after a bunch of research online and checking out Consumer Reports, we settled on a Toshiba! Circuit City had an INCREDIBLE deal in which we got the computer, a wireless printer and Microsoft Office for less then a $1000! We already have one printer, but you can't pass up a FREE one!

Regarding our Dell, it is TOAST! According to them, our motherboard is dead. The model we had experienced one problem after another!

AAACCCKKKK....COMPUTERS!!!

My laptop is in retirement after being only 4 years old, but in techno ways these days, its time for a new one. I have been trying to rev her up with more memory, but NO, she is being STUBBORN! The GEEK SQUAD even helped me pick out the appropriate memory for my type of computer and she is failing to cooperate! We could really use a new one, but we are holding out until we get closer to our referral. The way things are going, if we purchased another laptop now, it will be in retirement by the time we get our referral! So in the meantime, I am practicing patience....the theme of my life!

Real Men Play With Pink

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we have a local campaign going on called "Real Men Wear Pink". I think this is an interesting campaign since it has brought forth more men talking about how they play a role and our affected by the effects of breast cancer! Jack has brought a new twist to this campaign to remind us that real men play with pink! He has helped the women in our family and those who walk through our doors each week!

October Stamp Club Projects

I have a group of ladies that come over the first Friday of every month to stamp and create projects with Stampin' Up! products! This is the first club I have had and it has been so much fun getting to know these ladies more and use my resources to come up with projects! We had a Halloween theme this past month and created a spinner card, paper balls/ lantern, a dixie cup basket and decorated a sucker! I LOVE the paper balls and how you can change them with the seasons! I am already pondering making some for Christmas using all the papers I have collected! I LOVE my stamps, but am getting a paper addiction!

Thanks Mama Pat!

Troy and I received the cutest ducky quilt a couple of weeks ago from Mama Pat. Mama Pat is our "surrogate mother" who always has a listening ear and truly understands what Troy and I have been through and continue to deal with. She and her husband are true jewels! Mama Pat is a talented seamstress and asked to make us a quilt for our little one(s), but wanted to know what theme we wanted. Troy LOVES rubber ducks and we will be the "Roenfanz Rubber Duckies" if we ever have our own team, plus it is unisex since we don't care if we get a boy, girl or both! The quilt turned out perfect and has so many special little touches to it like the duck family on the back. I also hope her note in the card that accompanied it is true: "Now that I've finally got it there, maybe it will be a good omen for them to speed up in China! :-) " We hope so too!

10 Months LID and Prayer Request

Today marks 10 months since our dossier was logged into China and our wait officially began. I must say we are pretty bummed out at this time. Rumor Queen had a post on Wednesday regarding the future of the wait time and it was depressing. Of course she is not God and is looking only at previous numbers and other sources, but it downright STUNK! They are saying the wait can get to 34-36 months! The CCAA has "said" they will try to match at least 15 days of LID's each month starting in 2008, but that still puts us at another 2 years if we are lucky! We chose China for a number of reasons, but one of those was their speedier rate of referrals and integrity in the adoption process... PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE (I know we are desperate !!!) pray for this process to speed up, especially for the children in the orphanages! They ARE out there and need to be in their FOREVER FAMILIES NOW! Please pray for Troy and I, especially for patience and understanding during this time!

On a better note, the CCAA is done with referrals through November 2005! I read somewhere that it took 6 months to get through November! CRAZY! I feel for all those families! It did take them only 23 days to review the entire month of August 2006 LID's in the Review Room!

Hawks, Bulbs, Muffins and Other Ramblings...

It is Sunday night and I am reviewing the past weekend and how fast it has gone! I am also relishing that I only have to work a 1/2 day on Monday since the schools are closed, but the prenatal clinic remains open!

I had my stamp club meet on Friday night and we had a great time making a Halloween spinner card, paper lantern and a Dixie cup basket! I will have to post pictures of the projects later. Troy went golfing with friends while we met and he had an incredible game...it must be the new golf shirt he received for his birthday. He came home excited as always and had to tell me the story, hole by hole! He did shoot 1 above par a week ago!

Since Troy had to work at the the soccer fields on Saturday, I caught up with some grocery shopping and went to Kohls for some more silverware. It is amazing how often we do dishes and run out of silverware with 1-2 extra people in the house per day! How do these families of 16 do it! I ended the evening (after having our weekly Mexican dinner and buying birdseed) with making muffins for house church on Sunday. We start off with a potluck breakfast each morning and it gives me an excuse to try out different recipes or throw together my experiments! So far so good despite Abby saying my food is too spicy! Hello, I am from Texas and we like flavor! I give her a hard time. Troy said he was the same way, but his taste buds have adjusted! She will be a spice lover before she knows it! Oh, Abby and Troy are depressed since Iowa lost. Next week is the big Iowa Hawkeyes vs. Texas Longhorns game, so I have been told. I told Troy we might as well become Illinois fans since they are doing very well this year. I am not a football lover, but I listen to the stories.

House church was incredible again! Each week has been totally different and while we have between 6-8 meet each week, we have had new faces each time! It is so relational because you actually get to talk to people and talk during church! Drinking coffee the entire time is not a bad addition either! Plus, Jack gets to join us! I love having our dog at church! After a short nap, I planted 100 spring bulbs this afternoon. This is a first for me, so we will see what happens. My hands are feeling it though! We are praying for rain and cooler weather! It was 94 degrees today and it is October in the Midwest. We were going to go to the pumpkin patch this afternoon, but it felt too much like summer! My parents are coming in on Wednesday from Texas and we are going to take them on Thursday. The weather is to be in the upper 60's, so I pray it feels more like Fall! The leaves are changing colors and dropping to the ground, but the temps are in the 90's! Global warming...

Troy's Birthday in Review!

Troy celebrated his 33rd birthday on the 26th and we decided to have a little fun with him! Abby (Troy's cousin who is living with us) and I came up with some clues to a scavenger hunt since I was too lazy to wrap one of Troy's gifts. Here we go:

Clue #1 was attached to his golf shirt and it read: I get hot when you turn me on. After checking the stove, shower and water faucets, Troy found clue #2 at... By the way, look at Jack sitting and listening so patiently. He is so dang cute!

...the gas grill! Clue #2 read: Jack's favorite outdoor food.

Troy immediately knew the answer to this one! Jack loves to eat birdseed which is kept in our barn like shed. Clue #3 said: Are you in the zone?

Since Abby brought her T.V., we now have a "Man Zone" in the basement! This was an easy clue, but the next one really stumped him. Clue #4: A mouse poops from this.

... yes, the trunk of my Matrix. (We call the Matrix "Mousey" since it looks like a little white mouse that ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOMS.) Troy got his 3 in 1 leaf blower that he has been wanting to add to his collection of tools "every man needs to have".

Please, Can I Have Some Ice Cream!

I am looking very cute sitting on Abby's lap! Can I please have some ice cream?

Why are you teasing me?I am watching...

Oh, I got a sample!
Wow! What a lady letting me lick her bowl!